XXX Corps:

A British Army Corps in World War two was a formation comprised of a number of divisions, usually commanded by a Lieutenant General. Unlike divisions, which often had territorial affiliations and whose structure usually remained fairly constant, corps in the British army had a flexible structure, divisions being added or taken away dependent on the corps mission.

XXX corps played an important role in North Africa, including the El Alamein and Tunisia campaigns. During both it was commanded by Lt Gen Sir Oliver LEESE (a distant cousin!) who later became 8th Army commander when Montgomery returned to England prior to D-Day.

The corps participated in the successful invasion and capture of Sicily in July 1943, following which it was withdrawn to the UK to prepare for the invasion of Normandy, for which it would be commanded by Lt Gen Gerard Bucknall.

The corps mission for D-Day was the assault on Gold Beach and subsequent advance inland. 50th(Tyne-tees) Infantry division, reinforced by 8th Armoured brigade and 56th (Independent) brigade and attached specialist troops was the assault division, supported by 7th Armoured division and (later) 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division.

Following the abortive attempt to capture Villers Bocage in mid-June 1944, Lt Gen. Bucknall was dismissed (along with 7th Armoured Division commander Maj Gen Erskine and 22nd Armoured Brigade commander Brigadier “Loony” Hinde) and replaced by Lt Gen Sir Brian Horrocks, who then led XXX corps until the end of the war in Europe.

	Gold Beach Living history Group Bedford QLR, parked in the Mall, Summer 2007, after leading the Household Cavalry pageant representing the advance North in Operation Garden.

XXX corps role in the Market Garden operation, opening on 17th September 1944, was to push north from a start line just north of the Maas-Schelde canal, linking up with the drop zone of US 101st Airborne division north of Eindhoven on the launch day, that of US 82nd Airborne division around Nijmegen on the second day, and that of 1st (British) airborne division at Arnhem no later than day three or four. Under corps command for this operation was Guards armoured division, the spearhead of the attack, supported by 50th (Tyne- tees) infantry division and 43rd (Wessex) Infantry division. The story of these formations in the battle will be told elsewhere in these pages.

From the outset XXX corps operations ran into problems. Horrocks was unwilling to commit his forces to the attack until he knew that the airborne landings had taken place, having had previous experience of airborne operations that had been cancelled at the last minute. This meant that no Guards armoured units crossed their start line until after 1400 on 17th September. They immediately ran into opposition from either side of the one narrow major road. The nature of the flanking terrain, being low-lying and muddy, made a broader front of advance impossible. When dusk fell at around 1700 advance units were still 9 miles short of Eindhoven and already behind schedule. As was the doctrine at that time, armoured units halted and went into leaguer at dusk and no further advance took place that day.

The following day progress was made through the US 101st Airborne division’s area, but due to the failure by the latter to secure the bridge at Son before it was destroyed by the retreating Germans the advance was again halted while awaiting bridging equipment.

By the afternoon of the third day XXX corps units with a battalion from US 82nd Airborne division attempted an attack on the bridge at Nijmegen which failed. No further advance was possible that day and once again XXX was held up in front of a bridge.

On the fourth day a defended river crossing by US troops supported by Guards armoured tanks enabled the capture of the Nijmegen bridge.

Lt Gen Horrocks, claiming that he needed time to reorganise his troops after the fighting in and around Nijmegen, did not renew the XXX advance until noon on Thursday 21st September, some eighteen hours after the capture of the Nijmegen bridge. A decision debated hotly ever since, this was described later by an eminent military historian as “not reflecting well on the British Army”.

Later attempts to continue the advance northwards were largely frustrated by German attacks from the flanks of the “Highway to Hell” as the single road leading the became known, Operation Garden and XXX Corps’ part in it petered out on Monday 25th September. 

More detail regarding the operations of all units mentioned in this short article may be found elsewhere in these pages.

Officers and men of XXX Corps Signals are represented at the event by members of the Gold Beach Living History group. They will be accompanied by their colleagues representing the largely unknown work of women of the ATS attached to the Royal Corps of Signals in 1939-45.

	Special Wireless section setting up QLR Interception station 1944.

Subject to availability, we hope to deploy our Bedford QLR radio interception vehicle, and to provide line communications to all British units taking part in the event.
This vehicle represents a XXX Corps specialist Royal Corps of Signals unit present during the Market Garden operation, 110 Special Wireless Section. Staffed by officers and men of both the Royal Corps of Signals and the Intelligence Corps, this unit followed very closely behind the leading elements of the XXX corps advance. Their role was to intercept and record enemy radio transmissions, passing them to local headquarters or to decoding specialists at Bletchley Park, back in the UK. They were also equipped to carry out direction-finding missions on enemy transmissions, using specially equipped trailers in pairs. Special Wireless Section soldiers were so close to the often fluid front line that they abandoned their issued Bren guns, replacing them with captured German ones, feeling that the use of British machine guns with their distinctive noise would give away their position.  

The vehicle was equipped with generator sets to enable interception operations to continue round the clock, whether on the move or static.

The Gold Beach Living History Group is attending this event and others to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of “those who only listen” – the “Y” service.

History compiled by Geoff Leese January 2007.